Car recovered from water

Police underwater unit at the scene

Police underwater unit at the scene where a woman's body was recovered after a car plunged into the River Clyde (Image: PA/Andrew Milligan)

Police divers assisted the rescue operation. The woman’s body was pulled from the water at around 3.45pm.

16:39

Map of Renfrew shows where incident occurred

16:23

Police investigation after body is recovered

Police launch investigation at the scene near the River Clyde where a woman's body was recovered from a car which plunged into the river (Image: SWNS)

16:21KEY EVENT

Video: New footage from the scene

16:07

Police confirm woman's body recovered from river

Police Scotland statement:

Around 1320 hours on Thursday 21 July 2016, police received a report of a car entering the River Clyde near to Lapwing Road, Renfrew. A search and rescue operation was immediately launched involving officers from Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and HM Coastguard.

A full search of the water surface has been conducted by divers from Police Scotland’s Marine Unit and a woman has now been recovered from the vehicle. She was the only person in the car. A post mortem examination will take place in due course to establish the exact cause of death.

The car remains in the water at this time and efforts are ongoing to remove it.

Enquiries are continuing to establish the exact circumstances of how the vehicle came to enter the River Clyde, with crash scene examiners conducting an investigation at the location.

Anyone with information that may assist the investigation is asked to contact officers at Greenock Police Office through 101.

16:05

Coastguard helicopter at scene as body is recovered

Police divers recover a body from the River Clyde after a major rescue operation with Coastguard and Fire and Rescue in Renfrew (Image: Daily Record)

15:58KEY EVENT

Body recovered from River Clyde

A body has been recovered by police divers from the river. According to our man at the scene the emergency presence has now been scaled back.

15:54

Police divers at the scene

Police divers search the scene where the car went into the River Clyde near Braehead (Image: Daily Record)

15:52

Unconfirmed reports that body has been recovered

There are unconfirmed reports from the scene that a body has now been recovered from the river in Renfrew.

A female driver was trapped in the 4x4 after it plunged into the Clyde more than two hours ago.

15:50

Two Coastguard rescue teams involved in search

From the coastguard: We received reports of a vehicle in the water with a person trapped. We have two rescue teams at the scene - Helensburgh and Greenock as well as as a coastguard senior officer and the HM coastguard helicopter from Glasgow as well as police, ambulance and fire. The helicopter was on scene and did a quick search and went and picked up divers. There’s now divers at the scene trying to rescue the person that’s trapped.

15:46

'I heard a loud noise and minutes later there were police everywhere'

The 4x4, which is understood to have one person in it, was seen clipping another two cars before breaching the metal fence and entering the water.

One resident who asked not to be named said: “I heard a loud noise and minutes later there were police everywhere then the helicopter arrived.

“I heard that it was a woman driving alone.”

15:43KEY EVENT

Coastguard helicopter leaves the scene

Coastguard helicopter at the scene next to the River Clyde in Renfrew (Image: Meriel Kerr)

The HM Coastguard helicopter took off from the river bank just after at 3:30pm.The recovery operation, led by Police Scotland’s Underwater Unit, is still underway.Locals gathered behind the large police cordon to watch the operation unfold.